Do It Yoself: Coffee Filter Wall

Brilliant, cheap, and simple - what a DIY should be. From the haystack needle.

And Elle Deco International Design Awards are out with the April issues!

Hope all your post-Spring Break sentiments are wonderful. Back to classes/Back to work...

Have a lovely Tuesday!

Kikette Interiors

I've been feeling shitty, and this french interior makes me feel so clear and content. Sterile and washed but so homey.

From wonderful blog Kikette Interiors.

diaphanous

What today felt like

New England is finally getting some sun. It even smells like spring.

I've been thinking about attic spaces and rugs a lot lately. My roommate and I are trying to decide what sort of rug to get for our hugemongo double next year - high ceilings, two windows, and a fireplace! She wants a cute, light-colored floral rug and window-length white curtains. I'm trying to go for sheer white drapery on the ceiling that extends to the windows with about two inches on the floor. Would also be content with no rug (bc we have hardwood and I love that) or a cheap Ikea Persisk rug. Firmly believe that persian rugs are befitting for any space - bathrooms and backyards included.

Now if we could knock out the back wall of the attic (in SF) and fill with windows...

Do It Yoself: Stenciled Doormat

Saw this on AT today. So quick/cheap/fun!

"M" monogram, yeah?! I've always wanted to design a family crest. It'll happen this summer!

See Lova Revolutionary for instructions.

attic spaces

This post is mostly for my parents, who are in the process of remodeling our attic. Guess who gets to do the interior?!!

Cheery yellow w exposed wood from Country Living. I like the floral wallpaper on the accent wall, the iron bed frame, and the built in shelves maximizing space. Although I would remove the boring beige carpet - looks like beautiful hardwood underneath.

Similar yellow floral wallpaper at Laura Ashley:

Erin £25.45; Wolcott £21.54

Not a skylight, but doesn't this window feel like one? Lagerlings

Eek! Too modern, but I really like how the bed continues into seating and a dining area. See the following image (AT SF house tour in Oakland) of a platformed bed. What if you filled an entire end of a narrow room with a platform? Elevate the bed. Queeste Architecten

Symmetrical, storage in the eaves, colorful without being startling. Monkey Cottage, from Cottage Living.

Curvy headboards for a strict space. Symmetry! Domino

Light!

A floor-to-ceiling window! I like that it seems to open for the top half. Attics and other small spaces would not seem confining with enough symmetry. Room further divided with privacy curtains. Domino

Romantic - yes, but also gloomy and possibly termite-ridden. It might not be possible to expand the windows, but if you had the heart, stone wall and rafters could be painted white. At any rate, the rug is too dark and dingy and the above-bed space definitely needs something brighter - not black! What a beautiful canopy!

sidecar

Sidecar High Dining Table, CB2 - 399

Ah, I like you so much! Slimmer, higher version of the original Parsons Table (like so much else at CB2). So versatile: dining table/bar/standing desk/vanity/DJ table. For something that looks really easily built, 399 is a bit expensive. But then again, you couldn't build something sufficiently stable with such spindly wooden legs wo soldering metal - this is engineered wood and metal.

Just think how cute you'd be sitting at your Sidecar w a sidecar!

A Tribute to My Friend Dwight

Here are my life experiences with beets.

When I want to eat some beets, I go to the Health Food Store next to work in North Beach, buy several ounces, and gorge with avocado and Goddess Dressing.

When I want to hear the voice of someone who has an intimate relationship with beets, I watch The Office reruns.

When I want to eat a delicious by-product of beta vulgaris, I choose dining halls that have swiss chard (which apparently, like kale, make really yumbos chips!).


When I want to listen to some mad good beats, my housemates and I bob along to Rapper's Delight or Afro Man.

And from the NY Times:
"WASHINGTON — On Friday, Michelle Obama will begin digging up a patch of White House lawn to plant a vegetable garden, the first since Eleanor Roosevelt’s victory garden in World War II. There will be no beets (the president doesn’t like them) but arugula will make the cut."

WHAT. Why does President Obama love arugula but not beets? They exist simultaneously. In modal logic, there could only ever be a double arrow between the two. Questionable practices!!
Michelle Obama cites raising awareness for childhood obesity as a primary reason for this victory garden of sorts. Never anything for beets awareness, obviously.

Beets photo from Tiny Farm Blog.

Raymond Goins

Birgitta Screen

If the Narnia wardrobe became painted with a scene of Narnia in spring. Two panel, hand painted representing a "Swedish natural themed archive of insects."

Albero Di Vita Screen

Four panel, hand painted leather screen of the tree of life.

Custom Italian Bedside Cabinet

No concealment? But I really like this bedside table's silhouette. Only intricacies are pull-out drawer and tray. In "aged crème finish and shadowed French blue lining."

Paris Bed

I don't like this as much as the Anthro Italian Campaign Canopy Bed, but having an actual headboard rather than just the metal framing is for sheezy a plus.

Radke Curiosities Cabinet

Quadrifoil! Was hab ich gesagt, yo!

Based in Atlanta, Raymond Goins is a biggie in design in the South.

Happy Wednesday!

For every one in the midst of finals, Wednesday is nearly over - the week is nearly over!

Sam Spencer's "Bloom" at the Wapping Project. Photo - Jessica Rolland.

BDL Observations

I’m in fucking Hartford, Connecticut again at the airport on my way home.

I always do this in v public spaces. Especially like to people-watch in airports. So... me observations:

Girl frontleft has really nice collarbones oh lord.

Why is she wearing entirely brown? Ya turd!

College students already begin to assume the attitudes and behaviors of professional adults: I am confident and self-reliant enough to sit alone, I am eating this bagel carefully, I read the Economist and I furrow my brow and squint at the sloppy boy to my left.

A man dressed and looking like a really tired homeless man just boarded for first class. ? Am I just being a judgemental b or did some one win something?

And this kills me but I can't stop thinking about it:

Two students: one athletic-looking girl, one frattish boy. Listening to their conversation, “girl” and “boy” suit them perfectly. She is the rash, talkative girl in class who is a dumb shit but doesn’t shut up. He wears a purple baseball cap and speaks with cautious pauses. I am three seats away.

A group of college students, I think from Amherst (by their hoodies), arrive at the gate together and pull out a deck of cards (I miss Lowell terribly!) and a camera.

The two to my left immediately cut their conversation, lean in, inquire, “Do you like Asians? Can you tell what they are? There’s an Asian girl on my floor this year“ and wonder if they’re going to Philly where my connecting flight's headed or “back to some place Asian.”

A reflection of their upbringing? - that any one non-white comes from somewhere else, doesn’t subscribe to what is American, and is always on the way “back to some place” after their foray into a sophisticated world?

They notice that I’m only three seats away, that I’m Asian, that I can hear them. Fits of silence!

Should I have said something? I keep thinking about this and it bothers me that my logic for silence is that I can’t be of any help. What could I have said that stemmed from reason rather than anger? It’s not as if their thoughts are based on reason. (Therefore it’s not as if rationality could alter their way of thinking.) Their experiences are clearly based on a lack of interaction, lack of experience. Is it even possible to conduct relations face to face when my face - my person - are what elicited their reactions? AH!!

It is so strange to be a minority. Of course this happens at home, but there is always a point made about San Francisco being so incredibly diverse and tolerant. Of course that’s not entirely true or realistic in terms of race dynamics (or very much else), but living on the East Coast, even in a small town that’s known for its gender/identity tolerance, I am incredibly aware that I am not white. In fact, it doesn’t matter that I am Chinese American – I am not white. This identity is assumed the default in most places, but fiercely reinforced here, as anything otherwise is otherwise and is immediately noted. Yes, I’ve always been aware of this – it’s true everywhere. But what upsets me is that this awareness seems to arise at every moment at which I am unaware of my race identity.

paperheart

A holiday for me is another opportunity to make cards and envelopes. Making these Valentine's sets was so pleasurable. No - you're lame! Unfortunately for me and the recipients, I didn't know that USPS has minimum envelope sizes?! They nearly all got sent back to me. So give it to you when I see you over Spring Break next week, ja?